Head Injury

Head Injury is defined by the National Advisory Neurological Diseases and Stroke Council as a morbid state, resulting from gross or subtle structural changes in the scalp, skull and/or the contents of the skull, produced by mechanical forces. Majority of fatalities in trauma cases occurs due to head injury. Unintentional injuries contribute 66.0% of all injury deaths and 70.0% of injury Disability Adjusted Life Years. Road Traffic Injuries contribute a large among unintentional injuries in low middle income countries. Young people from 15-29 year accounted highest portion of RTI. It is a modern epidemic with rising vehicles density, high velocity technology, along with congestion of roads and traffic rules violation. India has just 1% of the total vehicles in the world but it contributes to 6% of the global Road Traffic Cases. Unintentional head injury varies with extremes of outcome from good recovery to death. The lethality of injury depends on amount of strike force, skull properties at the point of the contact, thickness of scalp, amount of hair and thickness and elasticity of individual skull, etc. It is observed that the victim is more vulnerable in frontal collision, side collision and if hit by heavy motor vehicle. Head injury is also caused by the assault as a common reason and pattern of injuries depends upon type of weapon. Clinical features of head injury are: Loss of consciousness or headache, nausea and vomiting, ear bleed, vertigo and papilloedema. Likelihood of skull fracture is directly associated with severity of injury and vault is involved three times more often than the base. Sub dural hematoma (SDH) was the most common intracranial lesion resulting from head injury. Contusions and lacerations of the brain often seen in vehicular accidents and fall from height cases. These may occur with or without external injury to the scalp and fracture of the skull.

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Last date updated on April, 2024